a necessary conversation
by GingerGleek
Summary: A conversation between Carole and Kurt over Burt's hospital bed. Tag to 'Grilled Cheesus'. Rated T just in case.


_Disclaimer: I do not own Glee._

_A/N: Started as a drabble, like so much of my writing does, but expanded. Written for _soph1173_; not exactly what you asked for, but I hope you like it anyways! (:_

_I just felt like there needed to be a little more Carole tag to the episode, considering she's dating Burt._

_I hope you enjoy!_

_-0-0-_

Kurt's exhausted, naturally.

The last couple of hours have been a whirlwind of doctors coming and going with tests and results and more tests, and his dad slipping between a half-awake haze and blissfully deep sleep. It's the happiest Kurt's been in almost a week, and he honestly doesn't know how he survived the last couple days. It was killing him inside, a constant ache in his chest that was ever growing, to know that his dad may never wake up.

He's never seen his father as a variable in his life; always a constant. His mother was the variable, in and out of hospitals for years before finally finding some twisted semblance of a permanent state in death. He's always been able to count on his dad to be there. Perhaps not to understand him in most respects, but always around as a shoulder to cry on no matter the reason; always ready with a supportive word here or there when he needed the boost.

Having him comatose, he's realized just how much he needs his dad; just how totally and completely lost he'd be without him.

Right now he has one of his dad's hands clasped in both of his, the way he's been since his dad squeezed back a couple hours ago (doctors and their tests be damned), his head leaning down on the side of the hospital bed as he's on the verge of sleep. (Nurse Nancy offered to get him a cot, correctly assuming that he'd stay the night, but he'd politely declined. He has no plans to move from his spot in the foreseeable future.)

But then the door squeaks open obnoxiously and he bolts up, wincing, afraid that he's startled Burt. But no, he sleeps on; it's amazing how tired someone can be after having been in a coma for days. (But the doctors had made it clear that he was likely to sleep the majority of the time for a few more days, at the least.) Satisfied that the patient is sleeping on, he turns to the new arrival in the door.

Carole cringes lightly as she slowly pushes the door closed behind her with another unbearable squeal. 'Sorry,' she mouths lightly, taking a seat across from Kurt. The latter just shakes his head, offering a small and weary smile that's almost more of a grimace (but a definite improvement from any expression of his in the past week), a simple '_don't worry about it_' going unspoken.

"I wanted to be here sooner, but I was stuck manning the desk upstairs." Her voice is quiet for more than one reason; she feels like a nervous teenager again. Only now she's trying to prove herself to her boyfriend's son instead of mother. She internally berates herself for even saying it; for feeling the need for justifying her lack of arrival at an earlier time.

Kurt just nods. He doesn't mind, really; he's been glad for the alone time, and it's not like it had even occurred to him to think badly about Carole because she hadn't immediately arrived at the hospital bedside. (He doesn't even remember calling her to share the news, and maybe he didn't … but obviously the word got out, so he isn't too worried about that.)

There's silence in the room for a while, and Carole tentatively takes Burt's hand as though she's afraid Kurt will bite her out. He doesn't say a word, though. Just alternates his gaze between the heart monitor and his dad's face until he feels himself slipping into dreamland once again.

"I love him, you know," Carole says with more confidence in her tone than she's had when speaking to Kurt for days. He doesn't know how to respond to that, so he doesn't; but his shoulders and jaw tense up slightly and he's definitely not falling asleep anymore. "I do. Not as much as you, obviously, and not in nearly the same way; but I love him." If ever there was a deafening silence, this is it. But still he remains silent. "And I'll never try to take you mother's place," _good_, he thinks_, because no one ever can_, "but I want us to be a family someday. I really want this to work out, Kurt."

He nods to that, because he believes her, (on all counts). He takes a deep breath before finding his voice, "So does he."

And that's the truth. He knows it is. Knows how hard his dad's been trying to make this all come into place; knows that he's been being selfish, especially since he set them up in the first place (despite his dishonorable intentions) and introduced them. (_You both have dead spouses, you should talk_ … how the heck did that ever work, anyways?)

More silence. She opens her mouth after too long of a moment for it to be called a comfortable one, but he cuts her off politely, blurting out, "First Friday after he's out of the hospital," because he refuses to believe that there's an _if_ factor now that his dad's awake again, "are you and Finn free?"

There's no date to follow up his query; no specific time or place for her to agree to in good conscience, but she figures she deal with whatever might stand in the way of it at a later time. Smiling and looking into the face of the man she's coming to love and the poor boy she thinks she could, if he'd let her, she can't do anything but smile and say, "Yes."

_-0-0-_

_Please review!_


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